Fallen Angels by Noel Coward. The Menier Chocolate Factory, 4 O'Meara Street, London SE1 until 21 February 2026, 3☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Manuel Harlan.

Fallen Angels by Noel Coward. The Menier Chocolate Factory, 4 O'Meara Street, London SE1          until 21 February 2026,

3☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Scandalous no longer but entertaining still.”

A packed house – I saw this in preview – received this minor comedy by Noel Coward with rapturous enthusiasm which I did not quite share.  First staged in 1925 it is about two women married for ten years to extremely dull husbands whom they love but are no longer in love with thrown into a frenzy of lust when a Frenchman they both had affairs with before they got married announces he is coming to London. The prospect of a possible renewed romance is just too much. They get very drunk over dinner while hoping he will telephone them and have a furious quarrel with one of them storming out into the night. The following day in Act two the husbands return and lots of explanations to be given including where one of the women spent the night. As so often in a Coward comedy there is a comic maid who almost steals the show and, of course, the Frenchman does finally appear. Fallen Angels is not one of Coward's best comedies but firmly set in period this production directed by Christopher Luscombe works well enough, although the grand piano – another instrument which often appears in Cooward's plays – is not used to great advantage as there really is no decent song for anyone to sing, be it by Janie Dee as Julia Sorell  or Sarah Twomey as Saunders, the housemaid. The fact the know-it-all maid is new adds to the confusions. The original production ran for five months, a decent stint in 1925, and was considered scandalous at the time when the Lord Chamberlain reigned because it dealt with sex before marriage and the fact the two women appear about to bring the past back to life and indulge in adultery. Christopher Luscombe keeps thing romping along merrily enough and Janie Dee, no stranger to Coward plays, creates a slightly more serious character than maybe Julia was intended to be. As Jane Busby, her best friend and rival for the Frwnchman. Alexandra Gilbreath matches her as blow for blow in their Act One war of words fuelled by too much champagne. It is as funny as ever it was.  The dull husbands Richard Teverson  and Christopher Hollis do what is required of them, which is be pompous and incapable of thinking any woman would prefer another man to them -  until the penny drops - while Graham Vick as the Frenchman makes the most of his time on stage. It is a perfectly good night out, but while handsomely set and dressed, it is not one that will linger in the memory unlike the 1967 production with Joan Greenwood and Constance Cummings, which I saw and have never forgotten, and one reason why I saw this one in preview.

Cast

Janie Dee -Julia Seroll

Alexandra Gilbreath – Jane Banbury

Christopher Hollis – Bill Banbury

Richard Teverson – Fred Seroll

Sarah Twomey – Saunders

Graham Vick – Maurice Duclos

Creatives

Director – Christopher Luscombe

Set Designer – Simon Higlett

Costume Designer – Fotini Dimou

Lighting Designer – Oliver Fenwick

Sound Designer – Adam Cork

Music – Nigel Hess